In one of the earliest attempts to come to terms with modernism as a total phenomenon, the Czech Formalist, Jan Mukarovsk˝, began by stating that 'the notion of "modernism" is very indefinite'. Thirty-five years later, Monroe K. Spears echoed that sentiment when he prefaced an important book on the same subject by observing that 'Modernism is, of course, an impossible subject'. Shortly after that, the editors of one of the most widely disseminated anthologies of essays on the topic wrote in their introduction:

The name [i.e. modernism] is clear; the nature of the
movement or movements . . . is much less so. And
equally unclear is the status of the stylistic claim we
are making. We have noted that few ages have been
more multiple, more promiscuous in artistic style; to
distil from the multiplicity an overall style or mannerism
is a difficult, perhaps even an impossible task.